Who does the game economy really matter to?

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DreadLordAvatar wrote:

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

Tencent Holdings Ltd.

In laymans terms, the in game economy drives prices of real money sites, therefore, it matters to the owners* of these sites.

Du-du-daaaaaan.....

I removed another line, that basically said that anyone else is just on some form of treadmill, running as fast as they can on the spot to give their place some semblance of meaning and significance, confusing effort exerted for genuine achievement.

Again, not unlike real life.

I read a post on reddit today that said when you play league SC 'any time not spent playing as efficiently as possible is losing'.

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innervation wrote:

I read a post on reddit today that said when you play league SC 'any time not spent playing as efficiently as possible is losing'.

I can simultaneously agree and disagree with that. It's true from one aspect, untrue from another...and sad from both.

It matters to people who play in Trade league.

It's all pretty weird to me as a self-found player. People want a player-driven economy, and then when prices change based on what players are doing, you get all these posts saying "the economy is screwed!". No, the economy is doing fine, it's just doing what economies do - adapting. The economy isn't your friend.

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GusTheCrocodile wrote:

It's all pretty weird to me as a self-found player. People want a player-driven economy, and then when prices change based on what players are doing, you get all these posts saying "the economy is screwed!". No, the economy is doing fine, it's just doing what economies do - adapting. The economy isn't your friend.

I don't think it's that mysterious. It's the same as when some people say 'the planet is screwed' -- it's really not, obviously; it's a monumentally huge ball of celestially resilient matter and we're less than pimples on its surface. What is screwed, at least in the eyes of the people saying that, is their functional, immediate idea of 'the planet', i.e. their world.

Same thing here -- when people say 'the economy is screwed', they're not being literal. They're just saying that as far as they're concerned, it's bad for them.

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

I don't think it's that mysterious. It's the same as when some people say 'the planet is screwed' -- it's really not, obviously; it's a monumentally huge ball of celestially resilient matter and we're less than pimples on its surface. What is screwed, at least in the eyes of the people saying that, is their functional, immediate idea of 'the planet', i.e. their world.

Same thing here -- when people say 'the economy is screwed', they're not being literal. They're just saying that as far as they're concerned, it's bad for them.

Sure. The weirdness is not that I don't see that they're actually speaking of self-interest. It's seeing the language of the neoliberal preoccupation with 'economic health' leak into videogame communities; the rhetorical framing of the economy as some entity we serve; the conflict between defining economic health as the ease of personally procuring cheap goods, positing economic health is a good thing, and the game design that inherently seeks to impose artificial scarcity. Etc etc.

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GusTheCrocodile wrote:

Sure. The weirdness is not that I don't see that they're actually speaking of self-interest. It's seeing the language of the neoliberal preoccupation with 'economic health' leak into videogame communities; the rhetorical framing of the economy as some entity we serve; the conflict between defining economic health as the ease of personally procuring cheap goods, positing economic health is a good thing, and the game design that inherently seeks to impose artificial scarcity. Etc etc.

I'm not sure the word 'leak' applies when you consider who made PoE (eg expert MTG players, D2 trade junkies), what inspired them (eg D2, MTG), and at whom they were aiming the game (people stuck in boring, unfulfilled lives who deeply needed to believe that being expert MTG players and D2 trade junkies was the apex of human achievement).

Not saying it's not fascinating to unpack, just that I suspect you're...well, this is going to sound shitty coming from me, but considering what I just said might be something of a perfect storm in which to brew what you just said, I think you're kind of overthinking it. SORRY. :(

Something to consider? I dunno man, I've already gone beyond the correct amount of thinking, I wouldn't want to think about anything else. Totally my bad though, I should have checked what the right amount was before I had a quick thought and wrote it down.

(Devs and audience don't change the word's application here for me - indeed, they're the vector of 'leakage' - but your word choice may differ, that's fine)

Fuck. you're determined to pull me into this one aren't you. Fine.

So if we're going to call it leakage, let's consider a few other related terms. Seal. Container. Contamination. Loss. Dilution.

What are these in the context of your usage of the word 'leakage' to define the intrusion of 'neoliberal preoccupation with economic health into video games'?